Bi_4 Si_3 O_(12):RE(BSO:RE, RE = Eu^(3+), Sm^(3+), Ho^(3+), Tb^(3+)) crystals were grown by the modified vertical Bridgeman method, and doping effects on scintillation properties were investigated. Under γ-ray irradiation, the light yield of BSO doped with small doses of Eu^(3+) increases slightly, and the energy resolution improves significantly compared to pure BSO, therefore the ability of distinguishing between particles will be improved for BSO crystals with a small amount of Eu^(3+) dopant. The results show that a small amount of Eu^(3+) doping can sensitize the Bi^(3+) ions. The sensitization effect enables the reduction of intrinsic defects, and thus improves the scintillation properties. However, the relative light yield of BSO:Tb(1.0 mol%) crystal is 4.3%, which is smaller than 5.0% of pure BSO. The improved light yield and energy resolution in the BSO:Eu and BSO:Sm crystals are considered an impressive achievement in the optimization of this scintillator which is already suitable for applications such as dual-readout calorimeters and homogeneous hadron calorimeters.
